The war between independent book dealers and chain stores went to trial today in a San Francisco federal courtroom, where a lawyer for the independents blamed their losses on private, discriminatory discounts from publishers.

"This should not be an industry in which, ultimately, a couple of players get to dictate the terms, in which secret deals become the law of commerce," attorney Douglas R. Young said in his opening statement at the nonjury trial.

Young represents the American Booksellers Association and 27 independently owned bookstores from around the nation. Their suit, filed in 1998, accused two bookselling giants, Barnes & Noble and Borders Group, of arranging deals with publishers and distributors that are unavailable to independent stores, leading to expansion of the chains at the independents' expense.

The suit suffered a setback last month when U.S. District Judge William Orrick refused to let the independent stores seek damages, saying they failed to show they suffered financial losses because of discounts obtained by the chain stores.

At the trial, scheduled to last about two months, the independents want Orrick to rule the current discount arrangements illegal -- discriminatory and harmful to competition -- and issue an injunction against them.

Lawyers for the chains said the lawsuit is an attempt to shield the smaller stores from the effects of a competitive and changing market.

"The book business has undergone a revolution in the past couple of decades, " said Barnes & Noble's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, best known for winning a wrongful-death suit against O.J. Simpson. He cited the rise of superstores, the spacious retail outlets that offer cafes and other services.

"Rather than adapt to change, the plaintiffs have elected to file this lawsuit," Petrocelli said. He said the decline in independent stores has other causes, such as competition from online book services.

Reginald Steer, a lawyer for Borders, said the discounts it negotiates with publishers reflect the lower costs of supplying the company's regional warehouses with large quantities of books for 1,200 affiliated stores. He said Borders has never asked a publisher or distributor to make a discount unavailable to other buyers.

But Young, lawyer for the independents, said the chain stores have taken steps to keep their price arrangements confidential and "went so far as to instruct that terms not be put in writing."